New method: BoW Merit Index

After yesterday’s atrocious display across the entire Big Ten, it is obvious that a reverse preconception bias won’t be enough to convince anyone the Big Ten is the strongest conference. I’m scrapping that idea altogether and will henceforth publish my work-in-progress ranking system. I was really hoping to test this for a year before publishing anything, in case the results came out too ridiculous. However, I want to remain involved in the process, and I do like what I’m seeing with it so far. Therefore, I will publish the top 10 each week of my newly minted college football Merit Index. This method uses only results on the field this season, and rewards teams that have wins over successful teams. All losses are considered equal, but all wins are given a value that will grow as the season progresses. Some wins may start off as valuable, such as a blowout win at home over a mid-major program. Others may start small but will grow to have immense value, such as LSU’s win over Wisconsin. I won’t reveal my formula here; only the weekly results. I may from time to time mention a particular game’s value, and at the end of the season will list off the 10 most valuable wins of the year.

The top 10 in the BoW Merit Index will have a lot of noise early in the season, but this will quickly resolve itself as more games are played. Week 1 looks a bit ridiculous, but already in week 2 I am seeing signs that this will produce a legitimate measure of which teams have performed the best to that point. Here are the top 10 lists from week 1 and week 2: